The son of Antiochus
IV was still a minor when he inherited the Seleucid throne (164 BCE). He accompanied his guardian, Lysias, to Jerusalem
when the latter sought to reinforce the Greek garrison against Judah
Maccabee's seige. By the time they got there the Jewish rebels were in
control of the city. When Lysias agreed to a peace treaty that
granted Jews religious freedom, Antiochus violated the terms of that
agreement by ordering the imprisonment & execution of Honi, the Jewish high priest, &
the destruction of the city's
defenses. Before he could institute more repressive
measures his forces had to return to Antioch to ward off his cousin Demetrius'
challenge to his rule. But he was betrayed. Both he & his
guardian were executed by Demetrius.

Rare profile of the young monarch. Although
the other side of this tetradrachma preserves the image of an enthroned
Zeus holding a scepter & the figure of winged Victory used on the
coins of Antiochus IV, it lacks the latter's explicit claim of
divinity. Rather, like coins of earlier Seleucids, it bears the
simple inscription Basileos Antiochou ["of King
Antiochus"] with the epithet Eupatoros ["of a fine
father"] added at the bottom.